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The Big Cheese
The Big Cheese (also known as Big Cheese) was the first of two cheese-based machines entered by Roger Plant and Team Big Cheese. It exclusively competed in Series 3 of Robot Wars, where it reached the Heat Final before being eliminated by the eventual champion Chaos 2. It was succeeded by Wheely Big Cheese. Design The robot was a large classic wedge shaped robot, designed to look like a piece of cheese. It was armed with a large rear-hinged red lifting arm that was easily capable of lifting a Mini Cooper as well as lifting its opponents high in the air and pitting them. A bladed tip allowed for extra damage. The Big Cheese was very powerful, capable of lifting even Sgt. Bash into the air with little apparent effort. The interior of the machine featured guided missile and submarine components, as Roger Plant was a mini-submarine pilot, who described the robot as "quite fast, very manoeuvrable and very dangerous", although this conflicts with the robot's actual top speed of only 5 mph. Series Record Series 3 The Big Cheese participated in Heat E of the Third Wars. In the first round of the heat, The Big Cheese was placed up against newcomers to the main competition in Shrapnel. In the battle, despite Shrapnel boasting a very high weight and a very low clearance, The Big Cheese easily got underneath it with its lifting arm after approaching its sluggish opponent. Team Big Cheese's machine used this advantage to lift up Shrapnel, high above the ground. The Big Cheese then carried it effortlessly over to the pit of oblivion and dropped it in, declaring it the winner of the battle and easily putting it through to the next round of the heat. In the second round of the heat, The Big Cheese was placed up against another newcomer to the main competition in Anorakaphobia, this robot being a far quicker adversary than Shrapnel, forcing the more sluggish Big Cheese machine to chase after it throughout the entire battle. Anorakaphobia spent a lot of time trying to dodge away from the dreaded lifting arm of The Big Cheese, trying to create its own run-up to hit the previous heat-finalists side on with its axe weapon. Later on in the battle, in a skilful and lucky move, The Big Cheese finally got near to its opponent, trapped Anorakaphobia's active hammer between the arm and the wedge, giving it a dragging advantage. This allowed The Big Cheese to easily steer the less powerful Anorakaphobia forward towards the pit of oblivion, before pitting Anorakaphobia, putting it through to the Heat Final. What followed was a battle that was voted the best battle of the series: eventual champions Chaos 2 up against The Big Cheese. This was the first and only battle that saw The Big Cheese against another veteran team. At the start of the battle, The Big Cheese slid beneath Chaos 2's side, using a Roadblock-esque move, combined with its lifter, to tip the championship favourites onto its side, but it wasn't quite enough to get it all the way over, and the future champions came back down to the floor. The two machines then danced around each other before Chaos 2 then flipped The Big Cheese when the two met head on. Chaos 2 charged it over to the flame pit and flipped it against the arena wall, accidentally righting it. The Big Cheese then fought back, coming in side on and flipping Chaos 2 over, and pushing it against the arena wall. However, The Big Cheese then gave it room to self-right, and Chaos 2 did. Chaos 2 then retaliated, flipping The Big Cheese over. The Big Cheese came very close to self-righting, but just could not tip back onto its wheels, as not only was its lifting arm only working at half throttle, Chaos 2 was trying to hold it in place. The lifter slowly closed and it was then attacked by House Robots after a spin of delight from Chaos 2. However, after Sir Killalot had caused damage to its side and bottom, righted it and placed it on the arena floor flipper, The Big Cheese escaped and attacked Sgt. Bash, lifting the House Robot off the ground, until his rear half detached and fell to the ground. It was only when Sir Killalot joined in that The Big Cheese toppled over from the weight. Cease was eventually called and The Big Cheese was eliminated from the competition. At the end of the series, The Big Cheese was nominated for the Best Engineered Award, however it lost to the robot that also beat it in the main competition, Chaos 2. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 2 *Losses: 1 Series Record Appearances in Merchandise *The Big Cheese/Robot Wars: Metal Mayhem Outside Robot Wars After Roger Plant stopped competing in Robot Wars, he sold all of his robots. The Big Cheese was sold over eBay for £500 to an unknown buyer. The Big Cheese was later sold to roboteer Joseph Prophet in 2008, who formed Team ThunderCheese, later renamed Team Ironclads, and has built a featherweight robot Small Cheese, a yellow wedge shaped robot with a rear spike. Small Cheese made its first appearance in the Maidstone Robot Wars event in 2012. The Big Cheese has been used as a static display for several Robot Wars events, such as the Maidstone and Gloucester events in 2013. Team Ironclads has continues to fight in the live events with ThunderChild, Audacious and an improved version of Small Cheese named Small Cheese GTI, however Prophet has announced that The Big Cheese has been retired, with The Big Cheese being placed upon a wall as decoration. Trivia *There was another heavyweight machine that was to be entered for Series 3 called The Big Cheese. It was made by Liverdyne Robotics, but it was not completed in time for the main competition, and the team halted production after discovering that the name had been taken. *The Big Cheese's heat final battle against Chaos 2 was voted Best Battle of the Series in Series 3. *Ironically, The Big Cheese and Chaos 2, who met in the final of their Heat, were the only losing Heat Finalists in Series 2 to reach that stage in the following war. *The interior of the machine featured guided missile and submarine components, as Roger Plant was a mini-submarine pilot. *The Big Cheese weighed more than the model of Wheely Big Cheese that immediately succeeded it. *The Big Cheese is one of three robots to lose both a battle and an award to the same robot in the same series. The other two are Bigger Brother losing Best Design to Razer in The Fifth Wars, and The Creature losing Best Design to Gemini in The Fourth Wars. Honours Nominations *'Best Engineered Award' - Robot Wars: The Third Wars Category:UK Series competitors Category:Best Engineered Nominees Category:Robots from Somerset Category:Robots that have flipped Sergeant Bash Category:Robots with more Wins than Losses Category:Robots with puns for names Category:Robots with Lifters Category:Food Based Robots Category:UK Heat Finalists Category:Robots playable in video games Category:Robots to damage Sergeant Bash Category:Robots which debuted in Series 3 Category:Robots which only fought in Series 3 Category:Robots with cameo appearances in Series 4